One of the principal reasons for going into space is to reach a near acceleration-free (microgravity) environment. To achieve the lowest level of microgravity, say below 10.sup.-9 g, it is not only necessary to limit or isolate local disturbances to an experiment caused by the crew motion, thrusters, vibration, etc., but it is also necessary to account for gravity gradient forces, inertial rotation and atmospheric drag. Many research tasks in materials science, fluid dynamics and other disciplines may heed the lowest acceleration levels available. To reach acceleration levels as low as 10.sup.-8 to 10.sup.-9 g (or lower)=10.sup.-7 to 10.sup.-8 (m/s.sub.2) for very long periods of time, it is necessary to isolate the experiment from local transient perturbations. It is also necessary to locate the experiment near the spacecraft center-of-mass, as gravity gradient forces plus inertial rotation produce additional accelerations.
It is known that a compensation system exists for a satellite comprising a levitating body within the satellite, the position of the body relative to the satellite housing being determined by a sensing device. Subject to the position of the body inside the satellite, the sensing device controls thrusters correcting the position of the satellite in that the body always remains in a specific desired position relative to the satellite. Thus the compensation system serves for adapting the total satellite to the position of the levitating body so that the position of the satellite in the orbit is foreseeable and the satellite can be used for the purposes of navigation for geophysical functions. However, this has not been done for the purpose of conducting extreme low-g research because there was no way to supply power for heating, cooling and communicating with the levitating body without inducing external pressure such as radiation pressure upon the levitating body thereby inducing accelerations in excess of 10.sup.-9 to 10.sup.-10 g.
It is also known that there is an apparatus that will reduce or eliminate nearly completely the residual acceleration of a body within a manned spacecraft by use of a system by which scanning units monitoring the position of the body relative to a protection box (enclosing the body) moving together with the body, control driving means which are not provided directly at the protection box but at components of the spacecraft. However, the protection box and/or body in this instance are battery powered and have no means of providing the power required to operate a space laboratory equipped with heating, cooling and communications (telemetry, video, etc.) services for several hours or even several days.